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Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

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Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#41

Post by raverbashing »

Glowbox wrote: post #34
nirvana wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. And contrary to what others have said, more Germans know english than Dutch know english, on a day to day basis. Though you can get by without knowing dutch in amsterdam with a little creativity.

Do you have any numbers to back that up? This site ( http://www.nfia-india.com/why_english_speaking_society.html ) says 62% vs 91% in favor of the Netherlands. edit: seeing this guys profile/comments in this thread it's an obvious troll.

62% of the pop of Germany is more than 91% of population of Netherlands

Lies, damned lies and statistics ;)

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#42

Post by benologist »

josscrowcroft wrote: post #8

So, although I found the article a little bit light, I'm fascinated to hear anybody's experience of Amsterdam for solo entrepreneurs and creatives. I've been considering it as a place to live, work and play for a while. E.g. what are the pros/cons of moving there for 3–6 months, assuming there are no plans to raise funding, hire staff or rent an office?

Weather is shit almost the entire time.

There are more shops selling weed than daily staples like bread and milk.

The rent and the taxes are both very high.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#43

Post by NonEUCitizen »

ddbryant wrote: post #9
nirvana wrote: post #2

If you run a successful business in holland, and pay yourself a salary out of it, your tax rate is over %70! And on top of that, you have %20 VAT. And this isn't even going into the manifold fees and other types of taxes you are subjected to. ------------------------------- This comment is not spam. It had a nice positive score until the socialists arrived. Of course, socialists being unable to deal with reality (or…

Let's not make up numbers... Income tax is high here (not 70%) but you know, you get what you pay for. If you're American the 30% rule kicks in as long as you are here on a dutch american treaty visa or sponsored by a company. Any American can start a company here and get a 1 year visa. That's a pretty low barrier or entry compared to most countries. Corporate tax is also incredibly low, with a ton of benefits for th…

You don't to be American to qualify for 30% rule. You have to be an expat who qualifies as a Knowledge Worker, and was recruited to Netherlands for that purpose (if you were already living in the Netherlands when you got the job, you don't qualify). You can avail of the 30% rule for 10 years.

http://www.expatica.com/nl/finance_business/tax/The-Dutch-30...

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#44

Post by ay »

mtrimpe wrote: post #33
patrickk wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dublin? Everyone in Ireland (well 99.99%) speaks English as their first language. Some people even speak Irish ;)

Isn't Dublin a part of England though? ;) But good catch... I meant countries where English is not already the native language.

Just for the record: No, it's not part of England ;-)

The Northern Ireland (its capital Belfast) is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, alongside with England, Scotland, and Wales.

Dublin is a capital of the Republic of Ireland, which is on the south, and is a separate country (TLD .ie :) which uses euro as the currency, contrary to the UK's pound.

I am being a bit pedantic with since the whole UK/Ireland story is still a pretty fresh wound and making such a mistake might get one some negative brownie points in the conversation :-)

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#45

Post by intelekshual »

mtrimpe wrote: post #33
patrickk wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dublin? Everyone in Ireland (well 99.99%) speaks English as their first language. Some people even speak Irish ;)

Isn't Dublin a part of England though? ;) But good catch... I meant countries where English is not already the native language.

I can't tell if you are joking, but no, Dublin is not a part of England. It hasn't been for over 90 years.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#46

Post by LaGrange »

mtrimpe wrote: post #18
sgt wrote: post #15

Also factor in the time you're going to be spending learning Dutch. You'll probably get by with English alone since everyone will speak it with you, but it's certainly less than optimal.

Apart from London Amsterdam is probably the city where you can get by most easily speaking only English. It will be hard to fully integrate into Dutch social life without learning proper Dutch of course, but professionally it will not be much of a problem and the expat community is so large that it is fairly easy to build a decent social life within it.

There is a high availability of Dutch courses for expats, though, and if you know English and/or German already, you actually have quite a good start.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#47

Post by NonEUCitizen »

nirvana wrote: post #24
subsystem wrote: post #12

The real question is of course "Is it better than Berlin?". I personally wouldn't bother with any European city with housing market problem, excluding London.

No. And contrary to what others have said, more Germans know english than Dutch know english, on a day to day basis. Though you can get by without knowing dutch in amsterdam with a little creativity.

Some Dutch words look like English words, and a lot of Dutch words are similar to German. So if you're an English-speaking expat in Amsterdam, learn German instead of Dutch (Goethe Institut is on Herengracht). Then you'll understand a bit of Dutch (though you don't have to since everyone speaks English), and you'll be all set when you move to Berlin later.

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#48

Post by digitalengineer »

raverbashing wrote: post #38
digitalengineer wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dutchman here. Depends on where your from. Trying to find an affordable place to live can be difficult. (Depending on what you feel is affordable). On the other hand, distance is nothing in Holland. You drive through the entire country in 3 hours. An affordable place to live just 30 min outside Amsterdam is a lot easier. Public transport is good, most of the time. Driving and parking in A'dam is expensive as well...…

Can you give a ballpark on rent figures? Also on average 'take home pay' for jobs

Here's an overview with pictures and prices. Remember it's cheaper 30 min outslide of the city. http://www.funda.nl/huur/amsterdam/sorteer-huurprijs-op/p8/

Edit: What kind of jobs exactly?

Re: Why (or why not) to move your company to Amsterdam

#50

Post by jonascopenhagen »

mtrimpe wrote: post #37
jonascopenhagen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amsterdam is probably the only city, apart from London, where you can get by perfectly speaking only English. You can get by perfectly speaking only English in most of Northern Europe. Southern Europe is a different story.

Seeing that your from Copenhagen; how is the expat community there? Here it feels very thriving, lively and well-functioning, but quite insular because on the one hand we make it so easy to get by with English alone but on the other hand we don't truly accept people into our social circles unless they speak Dutch. Can you relate to that?

Yes and no - the Americans I know who live here are generally very happy with it. Some are so used to being able to speak English everywhere in Denmark that they live here for years without getting to know the language. But I would definitely recommend people who live here for a longer time (two or more years) to learn a little Danish. It's not that hard, and they can use their knowledge of Danish to easily learn similar languages like German, Swedish, etc.
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